TRACES OF TERRORISM: THE SHEIK

TRACES OF TERRORISM: THE SHEIK; Sheik's Son and bin Laden Spoke of Plots, Officials Say

By JUDITH MILLER

Published: May 18, 2002

The White House learned in February 2001 that Osama bin Laden had discussed hijacking a Pakistani airliner with the son of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman at a meeting earlier that year in Afghanistan, according to current and former administration officials.

The officials said the hijacking was one of three options Assad Allah Abdul Rahman, one of Sheik Rahman's sons, proposed to Mr. bin Laden as a means of freeing the sheik. A blind Muslim scholar, Sheik Rahman is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 1995 for conspiracy to blow up New York bridges and tunnels and other landmarks in 1993.

One official said the National Security Council's Counterterrorism Security Group, which was then led by Richard A. Clarke, had received a Central Intelligence Agency report in February 2001 about the meeting between the two men, and information about the reaction to their discussions in subsequent intelligence reports.

Officials said the initial report of the meeting was not shared with President Bush or other senior officials at the White House at that time because Mr. bin Laden appeared to have shown little interest in the hijacking or in Mr. Rahman's other proposals.

An intelligence official said the C.I.A. had found no record that such a report had been sent over to the White House in February, but, he added, ''over the years there have been similar reports of the sons' schemes to free their father.''

In a detailed briefing on Thursday, Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, said intelligence analysts had long believed that terrorists, and Al Qaeda in particular, might hijack commercial jets. But she denied news accounts that a different hijacking threat Mr. Bush received last August was specific enough to warrant a public warning.

According to people familiar with the intelligence information given to White House counterterrorism officials in February 2001, Sheik Rahman's son had discussed with Mr. bin Laden three types of potential terrorist operations intended to get political leverage to secure the sheik's release from a high-security prison in Missouri. One plan was for Mr. bin Laden's Qaeda network to help hijack a Pakistani International Airlines flight and hold the passengers hostage until the sheik was freed.

The second idea was to attack an American embassy and hold the diplomats until the sheik's release. The third involved kidnapping private American citizens abroad.

Sheik Rahman's son was very upset at having been denied permission to see his father and had made an impassioned plea for Mr. bin Laden's support, one official said.

''According to the report, he was very agitated, deeply upset,'' the official said.

Information about the meeting and Mr. Rahman's appeal was not provided to other senior or White House officials because the agency had ''no reason to believe that bin Laden was willing to approve such plans, or act at all on the ideas,'' the official said.

''We had indications that bin Laden was dismissive of the youthful suggestions of the sheik's son,'' he said. ''Our information is that while he had heard him out patiently and sympathetically, he gave no indication that he was prepared to follow up on any of these schemes.''

An official said American intelligence analysts had found it highly unlikely that Mr. bin Laden would sanction or assist a plot to hijack a Pakistani airliner at a time when American officials were pressing Pakistan's government to distance itself from the militant Taliban who ruled Afghanistan, Mr. bin Laden's hosts and protectors.

''It was our assessment that bin Laden would not have found that prudent,'' one analyst said.

But American counterterrorism officials were deeply concerned at the time about the safety and security of American embassies, particularly those in places like Yemen, Turkey and other countries in which Qaeda cells were especially active.

The State Department had issued several travel advisories to Americans visiting and living in the Arabian peninsula and other regions where Al Qaeda was active, warning citizens to take steps to protect their personal security. ''We were concerned, and remained intensely concerned about kidnappings throughout the spring and summer,'' one administration official said.

The meeting early last year in Afghanistan was not Mr. Rahman's first effort to secure help from Mr. bin Laden in winning his father's release. In a videotape broadcast on Al Jazeera, the Qatar private satellite channel, which was released in September 2000, Assad Allah Rahman was shown seated near Mr. bin Laden under a banner calling for the sheik's release.

In the video, which officials said was probably made in the summer of 2000, Mr. bin Laden vowed to work with ''all-out power to free our brother, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, and all our prisoners in America, Egypt and Riyadh,'' Saudi Arabia. Mr. Rahman was heard urging others to ''move forward and shed blood.''